Thursday, June 30, 2011

Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles

The Journey continues…

Well it seems like Peru just does have the ability to keep surprising me. I have officially fallen in love with one of the dishes here in Peru called Papa De Huancaina. It is really good, I like it a lot. There are about 600 different variations and every family has their secret recipe. Of all the variations that I like the most is when they use milk to make it because the sauce is a lot creamier.

I have some exciting news, This Saturday is the baptism of one of my investigators. His name is Noe… the name in English is Noah. He is a great guy. He has a strong testimony. He is 20 years old and is a super hippy. He hasn’t taken a bath in a month. We are a little worried that we might be washing away a little more than sins. How we found him is actually a cool story. When I was in the CCM, I don’t remember if you remember, but there was a week when I left for the very first time to proselyte. It’s called blitz week in the CCM and well the CCM did that blitz in the area I am in now… the week before I arrived here. In other words.. What they do as missionaries that won’t be coming back to visit the area they leave their references for us in the area. We found the name of Noe in the references that the CCM left. Noe, when we first came to the door… looked like he had just woken up from a nap. That’s because he had just woken up from a nap. We came in and through great big sighs and yawns from Noe… we shared the first lesson with him. It was funny because we thought that he wouldn’t want us to come back because he really did not seem interested in what we were saying. As we were coming to a close with the lesson we taught him how to pray and asked him if he would be willing to share a prayer. He laughed a little and then asked us to explain again how to pray. We all laughed then and explained again how to pray. He said a fantastic prayer… most likely because he was fully awake by then. We came back, and came back, and came back.He has been in church these last two Sundays and has all that he needs to pass his interview today. We are all super excited.

One of the great lessons that I am slowly learning here on the mission is how to be humble. Humility is really the key to success. I have been reading a lot about the war chapters in the book of Mormon and I have come to the conclusion that for us to really obtain all the blessings of god we need to examine our own personal pride. A companion is a good source of practice. Sometimes I really want to teach. I really want to say something that comes to my mind. I must in turn realize that my companion, just like me, is called specifically to be in this area at this same time. The ability to take instruction and/or rather constructive criticism and apply it in my life has always been a hard pill to swallow. I don’t, like most people, want someone else to tell me that I am doing something wrong. I have now learned that there is a large difference between help given through love and help given to burn. I tend to think of Jesus in this moment when he washed the feet of the apostles. I would think that most people consider the foot of someone else an unpleasant eye sore, and to touch the foot of someone else naturally being the furthest thought in their mind. Imagine the condition of people’s feet in ancient Israel, and tell me that what Jesus did was not absolutely incredible. I find that through the Lord´s example we can become better people… live a happier life.

Love you all and I hope that everything is great.

I would love it if you would send me pictures too. We could do an exchange three for three every week… please.

A little about my ward, it is not all that big, maybe 50 to 75 people, but there should be a ton more. There are lots of less active members.

My pensionista... I will send a picture of her this Monday.. ok so the three pictures this Monday will be three in my suit and the next Monday will be baptism and my pensionista and then a picture from the temple ya ……

Love you all!!!! Elder Harris

Photo information:

1) This is a door that we knocked on that was really far away and I had to use a stick to get to it.

2) Me with Noe washing dishes in his house.

3) My companion and I started playing horse with a little plastic ball and the trash can. Well..I lost!!!!!